Walmart opening new grocery store in Brunswick by end of the year

New 40,000-square-foot store will employ 95 to 100, company spokesman said

BRUNSWICK | A Walmart Neighborhood Market is being built in Brunswick, the first of the stores in Southeast Georgia and the first outside the Atlanta area, a company spokesman told Brunswick city commissioners Wednesday night.

The 40,000-square-foot store is under construction in what was formerly a strip shopping center at the intersection of busy Altama Avenue and Community Road and will be built on the site of the city's original Walmart,Walmart spokesman Glen Wilkins told the city.

The store will be open by the end of the year and employ 95 to 100 in new jobs, Wilkins said.

Walmart has a single store in Glynn County, a Walmart super center just outside the Brunswick city limits.

Brunswick Mayor Cornell Harvey said the city looks forward to the openings and all the things it will offer the city.

"It isn't a super center,'' Wilkins said of the new store, but is instead a "quick-in, quick out…small basket store.''

"We've found this format has been very popular,'' Wilkins said.

The Neighborhood Markets were designed in 1998 as a small-footprint option that would offer a pharmacy, fresh groceries and some household merchandise, the company said in a release. The stores are about a quarter the size of the average Walmart and there are now 340 of them nationwide, the company said.

The store will have a pharmacy, a gas station and offer beer and wine, he said.

Wilkins said there are 10 of the stores in Jacksonville, about eight in or around Atlanta and four planned for Augusta.

Asked about the competition with a nearby Winn-Dixie and other stores, Wilkins said new groceries are good for communities because pricing becomes more competitive and existing stores improve their buildings and services. The Winn-Dixie has a pharmacy and there are also Rite-Aid and Walgreens stores at the intersection.